Arts Writer
IT’S been years since Omri Hadari has lived in Cape Town, but it still remains one of his favourites, for its beauty and above all for the friendships he made.
Hadari is back to celebrate 175 Years of South African Jewry in the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s final concert of the current 10th Cape Town International Summer Festival.
This concert takes place at the City Hall on Thursday, at 8pm.
Hadari has never lost his ties with South Africa.
Having been principal guest conductor with the CTSO from 1985-1989 when he was appointed music director for three years, he has continued to come back, and in fact, was with the KZNPO for 22 consecutive years until two years ago. He was also back with the CPO and conducted the SA National Youth Orchestra.
While he and his wife Osnat have lived in Oporto (he was principal guest conductor for seven years and very involved in the city’s music life with conducting master- classes after he left Cape Town), London (where they lived before they came here), and Israel where they now live, Cape Town still remains dear to them.
“It was one of the best periods of our lives,” he says. “And what makes this visit so pleasurable is that one of our dearest friends, Sheila Catzel is returning from Australia to celebrate a special birthday when we are here.”
“Sheila was chairman of the Friends of the CTSO for many years, before moving with her late husband to Sydney, and someone who took many visiting artists under her wing. It will be wonderful to see her.”
When he was music director, he did 44 concerts a year over 22 weeks, and with the larger forces at his command he was able to programme virtually all the Mahler Symphonies and even some Bruckner.
He recorded all the Arnold van Wyk symphonic works, and conducted the Britten War Requiem. Other highlights included the massive Turangalila Symphony by Messiaen and bringing in, probably for the first time, two choirs – from Soweto and Gugulethu, to sing the Beethoven 9th Symphony. He also puts the City Hall at the top of his list of great concert halls, which also includes the city halls in Durban and Johannesburg. “The older ones resonate much more than most modern concert halls,” he says.
Hadari is no stranger to what has happened in South Africa – closure of orchestras thanks to lack of funding. Since settling in Israel, Hadari’s Ashdod Chamber Orchestra was closed, and last year the Classica Israel Hadera Orchestra, where he was in place for 13 years, was closed as soon as a new mayor took office and needed to make budget cuts.
Before he became a conductor, Hadari was one of Israel’s finest trumpeters, then graduating from the Guildhall School of Music in London from an advanced conducting course.
From that point, he appeared with many orchestras including The Royal Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Israel Chamber, the San Francisco Chamber, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) orchestras, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on a regular basis.
In 1987, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, directed many live broadcasts and made studio recordings for the ABC.
Hadari’s friends will also know that his violinist son, Netta, who attended Westerford High, and made his professional debut in the city, is now a Yale graduate and has opened a music school in New Haven in Connecticut with his Korean violinist wife.
He also conducts the youth orchestra, plays and teaches, and helps out with their two young children.
Other high points in recent years include conducting in Taiwan, and also in Turkey where, before Israel and Turkey cut ties, he conducted in four cities for four years.
Hadari is looking forward to the concert because of two special links: “I introduced the soloist Aviram Reichert to South Africa and am looking forward very much to collaborating with him again.”
“The second reason is that 25 years ago I conducted a gala concert with the CTSO to celebrate 150 years of the Gardens Synagogue. There are truly good reasons to be back!”
He will also be back to conduct the CPO in November.
The concert this Thursday will feature Reichert performing Gerswin’s Rhapsody in Blue, as well as the overture to Bernstein’s opera, Candide, and the Second Rachmaninov Symphony.
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